Pat Quinn

On October 30, 1975, the “New York Daily News” had a headline in 3 inch bold print over a photograph of President Gerald R. Ford blaring: “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD.” That headline became one of the most famous political headlines in American history. It encouraged the weak and discouraged conservative movement demoralized after several years of big spending by the nearly-impeached President Richard Nixon during his disastrous time in office. President Ford had given a speech the day before the attention-getting newspaper headline in which he denied federal assistance in order to spare the big-spending New York City from bankruptcy.

Ironically, the RINO (Republican in Name Only) president, Gerald R. Ford, blamed the headline -- which had cheered the conservative movement -- for his losing the presidency to Jimmy Carter the next year after barely losing New York’s electoral votes. Ford protested that he never said those words “drop dead.” Ford whined years later, “It more than annoyed me because it wasn’t accurate. It was very unfair.”